New York vintage traffic signals. While researching my blog Vintage New York Postcards, my attention was drawn to a specific postcard in my collection. The image featured a 1922 traffic light tower (signal tower) located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
Continue reading New York vintage traffic signals
National Museum in Singapore, Part 2. Following my thoughts on the nature of the growth of museums, during a recent trip to Singapore, and, in particular, the National Museum of Singapore (NMS)—a place that I remembered for both its extensive galleries showcasing the history of Singapore and the temporary exhibitions on topics relevant to a more in-depth analysis of specific cultural dimensions—I was interested in the development of museum additions using this museum as an example.
Continue reading National Museum in Singapore, Part 2
National Museum in Singapore, Part 1. Over the past decades, art museums have outgrown their spatial footprint; be it an 18th or 19th century heritage facility or a contemporary addition. I mention these centuries, as during that period major modern museums were founded.
Continue reading National Museum in Singapore, Part 1
Hong Kong: a lesson in stairs (Central Market). In a recent blog, I described the origins of Central Market. I’d like to add that more detail of its history can be found at Timeline; at the Central Market website under Our Heritage Conservation; and in the comprehensive documentation Study on Historical and Architectural Context of Central Market.
Continue reading Hong Kong: a lesson in stairs (Central Market)
Hong Kong: the history of Central Market. Since ancient times, public markets—coined mercatus in Latin, which means trading, dealing or buying, as well as the physical place where those activities occur—have served as the identity and social lifeline for countless cities and towns. Food markets in particular have played a significant role as community-gathering places.
Continue reading Hong Kong: the history of Central Market
Ballenberg: a vernacular architecture museum. My first visit to the open-air architecture museum at Ballenberg, Switzerland took place during my first year in architecture school at the EPF-Lausanne. It was one of the few required excursions during my studies, and, with discernable reticence, we embarked on several buses to travel from Lausanne to visit one of Switzerland’s national treasures.
Continue reading Ballenberg: a vernacular architecture museum
Bathroom at the Novotel in Hong Kong. It is typical that many students in their early years studying architecture will find themselves in front of what they think is an unsurmountable challenge when tackling a simple yet robust project.
Continue reading Bathroom at the Novotel in Hong Kong
People’s Park Complex in Singapore-Part 3. Re-invention is what has always interested me professionally and as a teacher of architecture. Perhaps seen through a conceptual lens, the sketch below shows the simple yet straightforward transposing of a colonial morphology into a new modernist ideal of the 1970’s urban renewal program.
Continue reading People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 3
People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 1. There are some buildings that at first do not strike you. In fact, their demeanor reflects your preconception of what is good or bad architecture—an attitude that is far too often spontaneous and not rational enough to constitute a meaningful critique. For me, this was my dislike of the People’s Park Complex in Singapore.
“…a brutal high-rise slab on a brutal podium,” that is “in fact a condensed version of a Chinese downtown, a three-dimensional market based on the cellular matrix of Chinese shopping —a modern-movement Chinatown.”
Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL
Continue reading People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 1
The People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 2, (called the Grande Dame of modern Chinatown or an Emblem of Asian Modernism) was part of the experimental architectural megastructures described by architectural historian, Reyner Banham and was built in two stages.
Continue reading People’s Park Complex in Singapore, Part 2